ht be
productive of more harm than good. The disorders on board the schooner,
however, requiring immediate correction, I wrote a note to inform him of
them; requesting at the same time, that Mr. Aken might remain in the
Cumberland, and that the caulking of the vessel's upper works and fresh
boring of the pumps might be commenced, these being the principal objects
for which I had stopped at the island. In the evening the interpreter
called to say, that the corporal of the guard on board the schooner had
been punished for neglecting his orders; that one of the sailors, a
Prussian, being found on shore had been put into the guard house, and
that an answer would be given to my note in the morning [WEDNESDAY 21
DECEMBER 1803]. In effect, the interpreter then came with
lieutenant-colonel Monistrol, and explained to me a paper to the
following purport.

That the captain-general being convinced from the examination of my
journal, that I had absolutely changed the nature of the mission for
which the First Consul had granted a passport, wherein I was certainly
not authorised to stop at the Isle of France to make myself acquainted
with the _periodical winds, the port, present state Of the colony, etc._
That such conduct being a violation of neutrality, he ordered colonel
Monistrol to go on board the Cumberland, and in my presence to collect
into one or more trunks all other papers which might add to the proofs
already acquired; and after sealing the trunks, I was to be taken back to
the house where my suspicious conduct had made it necessary to confine me
from the instant of arriving in the port. It was further ordered, that
the crew of the schooner should be kept on board the prison ship; and
that an inventory should be taken of every thing in the Cumberland, and
the stores put under seal and guarded conformably to the regulations.*

[* The following is a copy of the order, as given to me by the
interpreter and certified by colonel Monistrol (In French, not included
here. Ebook editor.)]

Such was the answer given to my request for the repairs of the schooner
to be commenced. In compliance with their order the officers took me on
board, and the remaining books and papers, whether relating in any way to
the Investigator's voyage or not, even to letters received from my family
and friends during several years, were all taken away, locked up in a
trunk, and sealed. Mr. Aken and myself were allowed to take our clothes,
but the off